• CHRYSEE G. SAMILLANO
The General Alliance of Workers Association (GAWA) manifested its full support to the P750, across-the-board wage increase bill, filed by the Gabriela Women’s Party in the House of Representatives, in the midst of record-breaking inflation and shrinking incomes.
GAWA secretary general Wennie Sancho said this wage increase is one of the ways to emancipate the workers economically.
The P750 wage increase bill is a concrete means to narrow the gap between the family living wage, presently calculated to be over P1,100 per day, and the present minimum wage amounting to P350 to P750 per day, he said.
“However, we also take note of the P150 per day bill introduced by Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri in the Senate, which we consider an immediate economic relief,” Sancho said.
A wage increase is very crucial right now, particularly at a time when there is an increase in the prices of basic goods and services. Therefore, it is necessary that there should be a wage increase either from the House of Representatives, the Senate, or the Regional Wage Board, he said.
Sancho said that “As of now, we consider a wage increase as a necessity for the people to survive and for the workers to be able to provide for the basic needs of their families.”
Their support for national living wage is founded on the principle that labor is the leading creator of wealth in any society. Workers are the most productive and yet the least rewarded in our society. The Constitution acknowledges them to be the primary social economic force and yet they remain underpaid, under protected, underfed and underemployed, he said.
The latest survey of the International Labor Organization shows that there are 44 million workers all over the world who are earning less, and could not get out of poverty due to low wages, Sancho said.
“While our OFW’s are having salaries that could adequately support their families, ordinary workers in the country are receiving starvation wages. With the restoration of the workers purchasing power, we could also restore their dignity as a person,” he added.*
